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food-drink
Love Letters: Seasonal Simone
10/06/25
Author: RIISE Team
DOCUMENTED BY: RIISE
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Love Letters is a series of visual and written odes to somewhere, someone or something that inspires joy. Each letter is a celebration of the moments of delight in the lives of the creatives who inspire RIISE.
Meet Simone Jude, an in-demand cook, food stylist and pastry chef currently working at Melbourne’s beloved Bistra. Simone takes a deeply visual approach to cooking, but at the forefront of this is the desire to create dishes that people want to eat. She doesn’t want food to look untouchable; she wants it to awaken people's appetites.
We entered Simone's sun-filled apartment to the intoxicating smell of freshly made Amaretti biscuits, which perfectly set the scene to get to know each other and understand why her love letter is dedicated to cooking.
RIISE: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?
SJ: I work in a restaurant and as a private chef for events, but I’ve really struggled with calling myself a chef, I’ve never liked the word as it carries a weight, a sharpness, something a little too masculine for what I do. I prefer cook, it feels softer. My approach to cooking is deeply visual, hence why my work ventures into the field of food styling. It’s an area within the industry that enables me to bring that visual sensibility to the forefront. I would say that this sort of play with food comes naturally to me.
RIISE: How does cooking make you feel?
SJ: It quietens my mind like nothing else. The moment I step into the kitchen, everything else falls away—the noise, the distractions, the to-do lists. Cooking gives me something tangible to focus on, something rhythmic and grounding. It’s also deeply empowering to take a few raw ingredients and transform them into something beautiful and nourishing. And this gives me confidence, clarity, and a sense of purpose, regardless of whether I’m cooking for others or just for myself.
RIISE: Where do you get your ideas? Particularly for food styling?
SJ: Ideas tend to come to me when I’m not looking for them. For instance, while I’m cooking, eating, flicking through an old book. My book collection has grown wildly out of control, far beyond what my tiny apartment can reasonably accommodate. It’s an addiction, really: finding rare cookbooks and chasing down the most obscure references for my work.
When it comes to food styling, for me, it isn’t about control or precision, it’s about appetite. I’m drawn to plates that look generous, touched, a little undone—crumbs scattered, sauce smudged, herbs torn by hand. There’s something innately feminine in that approach, a kind of intuitive messiness that feels honest. There's beauty in that kind of ease and in the end, it’s about making people want to eat, not just look.
RIISE: What makes a good dinner party menu?
SJ: I like a menu that builds quietly: something light to begin, perhaps to be eaten in your hands, something rich and grounding in the middle, and something playful or familiar to end. I try to avoid repetition by never featuring the same ingredient twice. It keeps the meal feeling considered and layered, like each course has its own moment to shine. I also think deeply about texture and how different elements can play off each other. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should feel like someone really thought about it. And yes, I always overdo dessert.
RIISE: What’s your favourite memory of cooking? Or of food?
SJ: Sticky finger buns and eclairs with my Nan at country bakeries. Hunting for Easter eggs. Asking “what’s for dinner?” every night because mum always had something comforting waiting on the stove. Playing chef with my sisters in our bedrooms, which rarely involved much cooking. I could go on forever. Food was the consistent factor throughout so many wonderful moments.
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Documented By: RIISE
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